"Xellos-san! Zelgadis-san!" Amelia chirped. "I didn't realize you were here! Are you helping us rebuild this city too?"

Lina smacked a hand to her forehead and sighed. "Amelia, when are you going to catch a clue that none of us are doing this voluntarily?"

"I am," Gourry offered. Bonk.

"Oh, how wonderful!" exclaimed Amelia. "In times of crisis, we always manage to find each other! Now we have once again joined forces to fight for the cause of justice!" She struck a few poses.

In the midst of this, Sonjia took the opportunity to attempt to sneak off. However, she realized that someone had a firm hold on the back of her vest.

"Going somewhere?" said Zelgadis, narrowing his eyes. "I don't believe any of us gave you permission to leave."

"I didn't realize I needed permission," she replied, glaring back at him. The glare revealed to Zelgadis that she did indeed have violet, slit-pupiled eyes.

"Zelgadis-san!" Amelia interrupted. "Who's your new friend?" Was there a slight hint of jealousy in her voice?

"We're hardly friends!" they shot back at the same time. They then scowled at each other for saying the same things.

"That's Sonjia," Sylphiel explained. "We accidentally released her from some sort of seal in the old lab we found."

That piqued Xellos's curiosity. "Old lab?" He tried to get a good look at the girl while still in Lina's Death Grip. Finding that it was utterly useless to struggle with Lina Inverse, he simply teleported from her grasp, and reappeared right next to Zelgadis. "A lovely find, Zel-kun," he teased.

Zelgadis growled. "Get away from me, Mazoku bastard...."

Sonjia blinked and looked at Xellos. "Mazoku?"

Lina stalked over to them and beaned Xellos on the head for escaping her grasp. "Yeah, Xellos is a Mazoku."

Sonjia regarded Xellos intently, looking him up and down. After a few minutes of staring at him, she announced her observations. "He sure doesn't look like a Mazoku."

Everyone fell over, groaning at the Gourry-ish deduction. "Of course he doesn't look like a Mazoku!" Lina shouted. "He's just in a human disguise!"

"Really?" Sonjia reached out and tugged on Xellos's face. "Must be a mask or something...."

Everyone fell over again. "It's a MAGIC disguise!" Lina huffed, stating the obvious.

"Anyway," said Xellos, not really caring what anyone thought he was, "you mentioned an old magic lab. I'm curious to know what was down there."

"I don't know why everyone's so excited about that lab, if you could even call it that," said Sonjia. "All that we kept down there were some old books to read when we got bored. It was more of a childish 'secret hideout' than a magic lab."

"I see," said Xellos. He then snapped his fingers in excitement. "Well, looks like I win!"

"Win what?" said Lina.

Xellos put a hand behind his neck and grinned. "Well, Jadarin, the Mazoku underling that did this, happens to be one of my associates. He's trying to win the favor of my superior, so claimed that there was an old lab here that contained information about power that could be used to destroy the world! I made a bet with him that there was no such information, and it looks like I won!" He suddenly opened his eyes and jabbed an accusing finger at Sonjia. "That is, of course, unless you have it!"

Sonjia looked around her, unsure if such a remark was meant for her or not. "Me?" she questioned. "That's ridiculous! First of all," she said, holding up a warning finger, "I'm not exactly the supreme magic user in my family. My sister and brother were more skilled with spellcasting than I ever was...."

Lina rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Oh, so you have a brother now, too?" she commented, starting to completely doubt the girl's sincerity.

"Had," Sonjia corrected. "He was gone long before I was even sealed away. The Mazoku got him. Anyway," she said, turning her attention back to Xellos, "Even though my sister was the strongest spellcaster of the three of us, she specialized in defensive magic. Shields, wards, cloaks, and the like. So, unless this 'Jadarin' is looking for a really big wall to sit behind, he's out of luck," she concluded.

"Your sister was the most powerful, and her wards didn't even work," Lina said. "That's pretty pathetic."

Sonjia clenched a fist a growled. "Alright. That's it.... I'm tired of you people criticizing me and asking stupid questions! Just let me be, okay?" She struggled to get out of Zelgadis's grip, but wasn't making much progress.

"We wouldn't ask you stupid questions if you didn't give us stupid answers," he said coldly.

Sonjia glared at him. And then did something she wished she'd done from the very start. She smacked him right across the face.

Amelia flinched. That girl wouldn't have done that if she'd known any better. She'd have a few broken fingers after that. She looked back up, expecting to see Sonjia nursing a broken hand, and Zelgadis looking annoyed at her....

Instead, in the momentary shock, she'd broken free of his grasp, and none the worse for wear. Of all people, Zelgadis was the one nursing an injured cheek, looking rather surprised.

"There. Now leave me alone," she stated firmly, looking positively ticked. With that she stalked off.

"My dear, I believe you're missing something!" Xellos teasingly called after her. He then playfully held up her ribbon, which he'd managed to swipe in the confusion after she'd shown her "appreciation" for Zel.

Sonjia went pale, and immediately stopped in her tracks. She turned to face him. "You'd better give that back, if you know what's good for you," she threatened.

"Oh dear, how unpleasant," said Xellos, floating up a ways over her head and dangling the ribbon out in front of him. "But you've exhibited such a wide variety of negative emotions today, and frankly brought out the worst in all my fine friends down there. The Mazoku will dine well tonight," he teased. "I can't end it just yet."

Sonjia threw a rock at him, which he easily dodged. "Get down here, you piece of rotten garbage!" she yelled at him. "Give that back!"

"Temper temper," he scolded, holding the piece of silk just out of her reach. "What makes you so attached to this silly thing, anyway?"

"It's my sister's, that's all!" she stated flatly, while picking up a piece of wood to swat at him with.

Gourry watched the commotion and scratched his head. "She must be a baby bird," he reasoned to Lina.

Lina looked at him. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, my grandma always told me that baby birds take after whoever they see first when they hatch. And you said that when you pulled her out of the stone, you were the first thing she saw. So, she must be taking after you." For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Lina whacked him.

However, Gourry wasn't the only one watching this. From atop one of the finished buildings, the Mazoku identified as Jadarin watched in amusement. Sonjia was throwing things at Xellos, Lina was throttling Gourry, Amelia was looking confused, and Zelgadis looked annoyed. All in all, it was total chaos. He watched Xellos flit around with the stolen ribbon and smirked.

"That's right, you just keep that up," he said. "You think you won the bet, do you? Hmph." He stood and clapped his hands together. "I think it's time we upped the ante. I'll raise you a hundred human lives." With that, he teleported away while Xellos was still distracted, and before he caught on to what was going on.

Back on the ground, Sonjia was still using just about anything she could get her hands on as a Mazoku swatter. "I'm warning you... Give that back!"

Xellos grinned, highly enjoying his little game. "And what are you going to do if I don't?" She swatted at him again. "Ha! Too easy!" he exclaimed. "I could dodge your throws blindfolded!" He then looked at the ribbon he just happened to be holding. "In fact, that sounds like fun!" He tied the ribbon around his head, covering his eyes. "You may fire when ready," said Xellos, saluting.

No sooner had he said that, something did in fact hit him. And rather hard as well. It appeared that the ground had somehow snuck up on him while he wasn't looking. Upon closer examination, he realized that his levitation spell had completely lost effect. Sonjia stalked over to him and yanked the "blindfold" off his face.

"I hope that taught you a lesson," she said, reprimanding him.

"Hold it!" said Xellos, rubbing his backside. "Did you just do that to me?"

Sonjia gave him an indifferent look. "You did it to yourself, moron," she chided, tying the ribbon back on her wrist. "I just woke up from a few thousand year stasis. Don't mess with me when I'm cranky."

"No, seriously, how did you do that?" asked Xellos.

Sonjia wagged a finger at him. "That's a secret."

Xellos pouted. "Hey, that's my line! It's copyrighted!"

Sonjia turned her back on him. "If you can steal my ribbon, then I can steal your line," she reasoned to him.

Lina stood by in silence, completely astonished at what just happened. "She broke a Mazoku's spell without even uttering a word," she said to herself. "It didn't even look like she was casting a spell. Is she really that much more powerful than she's letting on?"

"Well, if she could slap Zelgadis without getting hurt, I'd say she's pretty strong," said Gourry, nodding. "I bet she could even beat me arm wrestling."

For once, the classic "Gourry-missing-the-point" comment gave Lina an idea. "Hey, Gourry," she said. "She obviously isn't too fond of me, Zelgadis, or Xellos. And considering her earlier observations, you two seem to be thinking on the same wavelength. So, why don't you go talk to her?"

Gourry was hesitant. "But what if she beats me up?"

Lina grabbed his collar. "If you don't get over there and get some information out of her, I'll beat you up personally!" she shouted. She released her grip on Gourry, and he obediently jogged over to where Sonjia was standing.

Sonjia's first impression of the group wasn't a very positive one. She stood against a wall of a building, arms crossed, looking like she was ready to rip someone's throat out. So, she wasn't too thrilled to see Gourry coming over to her. "What do you want?" she grumbled, looking away.

Gourry scratched his head. "Lina said your name before, but I think I forgot what it was," he remarked.

Oh, that really impressed her. "Sonjia. Sonjia Riescheaux," she said, still not looking at him.

Gourry pulled out a pen and paper. "Uh, how do you spell that?" he asked.

Sonjia fumed. "Do you people insist on mocking me?!" she shouted at him. "Back in my time, people were usually a little more polite to people they first meet! Has politeness died out over the thousand, two thousand, ten thousand, or L-sama-knows-how-many thousand years I've been sealed away?"

"But you haven't been very polite, either," Gourry observed truthfully. He smiled and held out a hand. "But that's okay! I'm Gourry Gabriev, and I don't want to be impolite!"

Sonjia was silent a moment, her back still to him. "What do you want?" she finally asked, a little less harshly than she had the first time.

"Oh, Lina wanted me to talk to you!" he said with enthusiasm. "She said that she thought that you and I think alike, so I would be the best one to talk to you. And I heard you were stuck in a rock for a really long time. And now that you're out, you don't know anyone and everything's different." He thought to himself briefly about that. "I bet if I was in that situation, I'd want someone to talk to, since I'd been alone so long. So, I guess that's what I'm here for!" He felt proud of himself for being able to figure that much out on his own.

Sonjia didn't say anything for a long while. For a moment, Gourry wondered if she'd heard him or not. But then she spoke. "Alone, huh? I guess you could say that... I lost my brother at the beginning of this whole mess, and my sister while I wasn't watching. So now I'm the only one left...." She finally turned to Gourry, a questioning look on her face. "But why do you want to know?"

"I don't know," said Gourry, sitting on the ground to ponder. "Lina just wants me to find out stuff about you. She thinks you're suspicious."

Sonjia smirked and slid down the wall to sit on the ground as well. "I didn't mean to be," she admitted. "But if someone treats me like a jerk, then I act like a jerk. Big sis used to ignore me for days on end while working on her spells. I got so desperate for attention, I'd start making a mess of things, which she'd have to punish me for. But at least it was attention."

Gourry grinned. "I bet your sister was really nice."

Sonjia sighed. ".... She tried to be.... But sometimes when you want to do the right thing, it just doesn't work out."

"I know how that is," said Gourry, stretching his arms behind his head. "When I first met Lina, I thought she was a little kid, so followed her around as her guardian. She's beaten me up lots of times for that. But she's still a good kid at heart."

"I see," said Sonjia. "You seem a decent fellow, though, with a good judge of character. If you think she's okay, I guess I could give her another chance."

"That's good!" said Gourry. "Even though we all got off to a rough start, I bet everyone would be glad to have you around! Especially since you're so strong!"

Sonjia blinked. "Strong? What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know," said Gourry, cheerily. "You hit Zelgadis with your bare hands and didn't even flinch! That's pretty impressive, considering he's made of stone."

"He's.... made of stone?" asked Sonjia, looking over to where Zel was standing. "Sure didn't feel stony when I hit him." She shrugged. "Maybe I hit a soft spot."

Gourry nodded. "Anyway, why don't you come with us for a while, since you're all alone? And since your sister used magic, maybe you could tell Lina about the spells, since she'd probably be more interested in them than me."

"No!" shouted Sonjia, a little more forcefully than she meant to. "I mean, I'd be happy to go with you, but I'm rather protective of my sister's legacy. Lina would be better off not knowing about the spells. They were all defensive, anyway, so there's not a whole lot of power value to them."

"Okay!" said Gourry, getting up. "Maybe you should be formally introduced to everyone, then, instead of beating them up. I bet they'd like you better if you did that."

"I don't know...." said Sonjia, scratching her head. "First impressions tend to be lasting impressions."